Tomorrow's Search

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering." Romans 12:1, The Message

I cannot recall the number of times I have both heard from others and stated to others that God has a plan for our lives.  We go on and state how perfect that plan is going to be.  We pray in the direction of that future plan and we ponder upon the substance of that plan.  All of God’s plans support the purpose of His kingdom.  So why we do we act as if the plan is in the future? 

I love the version of Romans 12:1 from The Message. Paul’s words were meant for our hearts and activities to be based on the now…our todays instead of some futuristic mystical will of God.  We are to offer our time, resources and mental focus on God’s work daily instead of our work.  He has not assigned us time on this earth to recline in our faith.  We all have daily offerings to give to God regarding His ‘today plan’ for our lives.  To focus on God having a future plan for our lives without daily spiritual activity is like expecting future retirement funds without depositing money into our account daily.  How can we expect to receive God’s future harvest if we don’t plant the daily spiritual seeds today? 

1 Th 5:21 instructs us to ‘Test everything and hold on to the good.’ Our culture tests us daily with distractions.  We only need to look towards our phones and computers to see where our distractions lay.  What is ‘the good’?  It is the time we give to others in their trying times…it is the way we serve and volunteer in things that break God’s heart…it is the amount of time we spend on Jesus instead of the things we have decided are important.  All spiritual tests are meant for greater knowledge, spiritual growth and deeper devotion to God.  These tests are designed to see if we are ready for His ultimate plan.  God's plan for today will string together many tomorrows resulting in the very purpose for which we were created.  Will we exchange our daily reclining faith for a releasing faith, faith that releases God’s daily plan for our lives.

What if God’s perfect plan for our lives is dependent upon today’s spiritual activity?  May we all test our activities today and hold on to God's good plan for May 19, 2014.